Nathan’s Reversible Asymmetrical Vest

Nathan’s Reversible Asymmetrical Vest

It all started, as such things often do, with a student bringing something interesting to the workrooms.

Mary Jeanne bought an asymmetric 3-armhole vest that was conceived as a modern abstract piece of fashion to be worn however the mood struck you…

Front…

Back…

Flat on table.

…but…

“It looked so good at the boutique when the clerk draped it on me, but I’ve never been able to wrap it right since. It always looks so undone and messy. Can you use it up here for something?”

We’ll always add an interesting piece of clothing to the archive, so we said “yes” and… proceeded to let it sit on the back table for a couple of weeks.

Enter: Nathan

Nathan was casting about for something interesting in addition to the stuff he is doing up here as part of his design school projects, so he started playing around with the shape. He messed around with the drape on a dress form and then started playing around with the grain line and reverse engineered the pieces.

He decided that he wanted to keep the abstract shape but make it reversible in two colors. He went with a coral linen for one layer and a deep purple silk shantung for the other.

Being one of the most detail-oriented students we’ve ever had, he sewed the seams by hand with a back-stitch and catch stitched all of the seam allowances down inside both layers:

Nathan’s backstitch seams

Seams backstitched, seam allowances catch-stitched.

We’d add here, for those just stumbling on our blog, that these types of finishes are above and beyond what we generally introduce in classes initially or most home sewers are going to want to do. They take time and patience. There are no quick wins when you are hand stitching seams and hand finishing seam allowances.

Once we had the pieces together and were ready to go, it was time for some pictures!

He was on his way out the door to get to classes at Colombia and we’re cleaning and re-setting in our off-season, but…

“For me, there is no more noble shroud than a purple one!” *(See note at end…)

And…Just so you know…

“A Hood! Tell them it can be worn as a hood! Put that in there!”

Yes, it can also be worn as a hood. Just in case you have some Marie-Antoinette-style assignations with Cardinals in the formal gardens at midnight in your future.

*Sometimes, in the midst of the pins and needles, the sewing and pressing, the most interesting things come up. We love that a reference to Theodora’s purple shroud just happily slipped out while we were taking these pictures…